Measures: Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI)

Measurement is essential to monitoring success and helps guide your team towards your specific intervention goal. Measurement also tells us what's working and what's not, and provides evidence to inspire other healthcare providers to improve the quality of patient safety.

The measurement methodology and recommendations regarding sampling size referenced in this GSK, is based on The Model for Improvement and is designed to accelerate the pace of improvement using the PDSA cycle; a "trial and learn" approach to improvement based on the scientific method. Langley, G., Nolan, K., Nolan, T., Norman, C., Provost, L. The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance. San Francisco, Second Edition, CA. Jossey-Bass Publishers. 2009.

It is not intended to provide the same rigor that might be applied in a research study, but rather offers an efficient way to help a team understand how a system is performing. When choosing a sample size for your intervention, it is important to consider the purposes and uses of the data and to acknowledge when reporting that the findings are based on an "x" sample as determined by the team.

The scope or scale (amount of sampling, testing, or time required) of a test should be decided according to:

The team's degree of belief that the change will result in improvement

Types of Measures

Safer Healthcare Now! (SHN) has two types of measures for each of the interventions: process measures and outcome measures. Some interventions also have balancing measures and information measures. Below are examples of each.

Outcome measures - answers whether the team is achieving what it is trying to accomplish and articulates the picture of success. For example, if the team wants to reduce falls it should measure the number of falls.

Process measures - Processes which directly affect the outcome are measured to ensure that all key changes are being implemented to impact the outcome measure. For example, the delivery of timely prophylactic antibiotics to reduce surgical site infection.

Balancing measures - answer the question whether improvements in one part of the system were made at the expense of other processes in other parts of the system. For example, in a project to reduce the average length of stay for a group of patients, the team should also monitor the percent of readmissions within 30 days for the same group.

Information measures - collect general details relative to the intervention.